Ring gears have been used for many years in motor vehicle differential gear assemblies to transfer rotational torque between a rotary driver member such as the output shaft of a change gear transmission and a pair of rotary driven members such as a pair of substantially axially aligned spaced-apart axle shafts journaled for rotation and having a wheel mounted on their respective outboard ends.
Examples of various types of prior art type motor vehicle differential gear assemblies are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,241,606; 3,000,456; and 3,388,760, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference and the latter two of which are assigned to the assignee of the present invention.
Such prior art type differential gear assemblies however employ a great number of costly components in addition to requiring a large differential housing to protect the numerous components as well as requiring precise alignment between the ring gear and the differential housing and between the differential pinion gears and the side gears as hereinafter described in more detail with respect to the prior art differential gear assembly in FIG. 1.